Mon, Feb-04-08, 09:13
|
|
Senior Member
Posts: 240
|
|
Plan: 90% classic Schwarzbein
Stats: 342/257/165
BF:>55%/51%/<30%
Progress: 48%
Location: Michigan, US
|
|
There are some ways to save money eating LC that don't require huge effort. Here in the northern hemisphere, it's late winter. That's a perfect time to start seeds in your house that you can later transplant outdoors (or move to pots in a sunny window). Seeds are cheaper than small plants and exponentially cheaper than fresh veggies, though you'll spend money on potting soil.
We have a small city yard that is "in progress" -- we have a lot of landscaping to do and a full garden is not in our plans, ever. But, we'll grow tomatoes hanging upside down on our front porch instead of baskets of flowers. Pots of herb plants fill shelves in my dining room window year-round. We're replacing some ugly old shrubs with blueberry and raspberry bushes. A small plot next to the garage will supply green beans, zucchini, and I'm hoping for cauliflower and salad greens as well.
I feed a family of 3, including a ravenous teenaged boy, for under $100/week. I'm no domestic goddess: I buy meat in bulk when it's on sale and stash it in our basement chest freezer (best investment ever). Every Sunday I clip and sort coupons from the paper -- mostly for paper goods and drugstore stuff, since coupons tend to be for packaged/prepared foods -- check what's on sale, create a menu plan for the week, make out my shopping list, and I'm done. That might take an hour. LC cookbooks from Dana Carpender have been lifesavers (the slow cooker and 15 minute meal ones are great) when I don't have the brain power to come up with a creative meal plan on my own.
Another advantage to that routine is that I never enter the kitchen in the afternoon and yank my hair out in frustration, trying to come up with an idea for dinner. My menu for the week is done. I can be sure that I'm varying protein sources, buy only as many carby foods as my family will eat, and all it takes is a glance at the list the night before to know what to pull out of the freezer to defrost.
Other little money savers: my husband and I eat no more than one restaurant meal each week (and we usually use a coupon or the Entertainment Book), I pack my kid a lunch for school every day, we drink a lot of water, and the only "new" products I've started buying since eating LC are coconut oil, stevia, and those insanely delicious Chocoperfection bars.
|